And the storm has reached downtown Phoenix. You can see it in the windows next to the scoreboard
Politics reporter @abc15.com in Phoenix. Ex newspaper editor. Diné (Navajo). Tábąąhá. Latina. 📧 manuelita.beck@abc15.com 📞 litabeck.16 on Signal ❤️ Golden Knights & Flyers 🏒, D-Backs & Mariners ⚾️ , my 🐈⬛, Star Wars, Batman, AEW, F1, romancelandia.
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And the storm has reached downtown Phoenix. You can see it in the windows next to the scoreboard
Chase Field has been helpfully showing us the approaching storm. It’s currently the sixth inning, so leaving the game could be challenging
Hey hi - my team has been covering both why age verification is awful (official bsky thread here is accurate): www.pcmag.com/opinions/is-... And we test and review VPNs so you can choose the best one for your needs: www.pcmag.com/picks/the-be...
Complying with Mississippi’s law would require much more than what they have for the UK. Mississippi requires them to verify every user, obtain parental consent for anyone under 18 and keep track of all minors. That’s a lot more onerous — particularly the collection and storage of personal info
BREAKING: BlueSky is blocking access to Mississippi. This is the No. 1 platform for @mississippifreepress.org. We ditched X for BlueSky early this year. And now, at 3 pm on a Friday, poof. I don't know what we'll do next. Keep up with us using our newsletter at mfp.ms/subscribe.
BREAKING: #oakflat gets last-minute halt to land exchange www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...
“I am not intimidated by this, because what I did was simply alert my community to stay away from an area where ICE could be, to keep themselves safe. That is First Amendment-protected speech.” — Arizona state Sen. Analise Ortiz
I talked with @senanaliseortiz.bsky.social yesterday after the AZ Senate president called the DOJ to ask for an investigation into her posts about ICE sightings. I talked with First Amendment experts today and will be updating my story: www.abc15.com/news/politic...
The answer to this is always “no”
Um wut
Based on the info in the full alert, this doesn’t appear to meet the criteria for an Amber Alert. Turquoise Alerts can be issued for a wider selection of cases. I saw a lot of confusion on this alert, though.
Here’s the criteria in AZ for Amber Alerts. DPS has some discretion, but generally custody disputes don’t qualify unless the child is in danger. A license plate isn’t required, but is generally considered info needed for criteria four and five on the list: www.azdps.gov/content/azdp...
I also wondered about this until I checked DPS’ website and saw that the child was last seen at the airport
Amber Alerts in Arizona cannot be issued for custody disputes like this case. According to the DPS alert, this child was seen with her mother, who does not have custody and is accused of fleeing Hawaii with the girl in violation of a court order.
I see AZ DPS describes the Turquoise Alert as a notification about “a missing endangered person, including tribal members.” I took another look at HB 2281’s bill language, which says “ ‘person’ includes a member of a federally recognized Indian tribe”
The first Turquoise Alert in Arizona has gone out. This is the new alert system intended for missing Indigenous people. However, this is for a missing child last seen on surveillance video at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. This child is not Indigenous, as per the alert page: www.azdps.gov/T/1809
These are the Louisville Leopard Percussionists and they are the best! Ozzy visited them once www.instagram.com/p/DMbVmYNTiT...
A true legend who always reinvented himself while still always staying Ozzy. Ozzfest gave me some of the defining moments of my 20s and, along with my name twin Lita Ford, one of the best songs of my middle school years.
You know you’re getting old when you leave your noise-canceling earphones in at the ballpark to protect your ears from the screaming kids sitting behind you. I appreciate their enthusiasm but ow
At tonight’s D-Backs game, they played Coldplay and then Baxter was caught with a St. Louis fan. You just know every pro team in the U.S. is doing this bit
I remain struck by how few readers Houston Landing had, despite the great work and, of course, all that money. “Built it and readers will come” is not a thing, but journalists have a hard time internalizing that.
What a huge loss. His columns are great explainers
I’m personally bemused by how determined Threads is to send me random push alerts to posts days after they were posted. That platform is run by the strangest algorithm
The funny part is, I was at the airport and then on a plane during #AEWAllInTexas so I didn’t watch it until yesterday afternoon! I was so late to the show, and this extremely late push alert STILL landed half a day after I had watched the PPV
Threads is the saddest social media site. This morning, it sent me a push alert for the “breaking news” that Adam Cole was vacating the TNT title. For a match that occurred Saturday. To a post @allelitewrestling.com made on Saturday before the match.
And this is also an underrated point. I’m in local because I want to inform my community. Which newsletters are great at! But you also need the reporting to meet their needs, and a one-person-band isn’t it bsky.app/profile/tara...
As someone who has worked in local news for nearly all of my 20 years in journalism, the “just start a newsletter” refrain is maddening. In addition to all of the excellent reasons in this thread, it’s just not practical at the local level, not if you want to, you know, eat
As opposed to Philly, the last city I lived in, which had dangerous heat last month? 118 is extreme, not usual Phoenix weather. And our winters are beautiful, while the Northeast and Midwest have heatwaves AND dangerous winters. Plus, most of the Navajo Nation is in Arizona. AZ is home.
I’m in Chicago at #NAHJ2025 this week and missed this extremely fun time back home. Talk about perfect timing!
Adding Messi should have created momentum, but any buzz was killed because the games aren’t accessible for anyone who wants to check them out. The Apple deal is great for existing MLS fans who are willing to pay. But it’s no way to grow the sport, and F1 would lose all of its casual viewers on Apple
Apple may have money, but moving F1 to Apple TV+ would kill F1’s momentum in the U.S. Just look at what’s happened to MLS.
Benson was a joy. I didn’t know him well when I was at the Arizona Republic, but he always had a kind word — and plenty of laughter. He was so passionate about his work and about the world. RIP
I used to work at a TV station in Dallas-Fort Worth, and can confirm that people get absolutely unhinged about breaking into programming. Especially if it’s Days of Our Lives.
SAME
I think the NYT/WaPo media ecosystem reflects the perspective of elites, but I’m increasingly skeptical that it’s as influential for normies as many think. The fracturing of information sources means those institutions are less relevant. Journalism overall just means less to voters than ever
Note: Arizona has required proof of citizenship to get a driver’s license since 1996. So most Arizonans who register to vote have their registration checked against the MVD database and do not have to bring documents anywhere to provide proof.
About 5% of Arizona voters have not provided proof of citizenship. These “federal only” voters are concentrated around college campuses and Native American reservations. (Enrolled tribal members can register for a full ballot using their tribal ID number). www.votebeat.org/arizona/2023...
Arizona has required proof of citizenship to register to vote in state and local elections for more than 20 years. But people can register to vote in federal elections without providing such proof, so Arizona’s voter rolls show how these requirements can affect voters
I just question the premise. And stories in the NYT/WaPo were not going to change the mind of people who heard Trump say Biden was hiding in the White House. I’ve got plenty of criticism of national political media, but I also think this last election cycle showed how irrelevant they are
The “nobody covered Biden’s IRA speeches” is just not true, though. They got plenty of coverage — by local news outlets, if not always NYT/WaPo. “Biden’s hiding in the White House” wasn’t true, just like “Biden’s hiding in his basement” wasn’t true in 2020.
Also to make an em dash all you have to do is put two dashes in a row in Word, and the program makes it for you. Wordpress too. Anything an LLM is doing is stolen from actual writers and I'll be damned if I'll let a plagiarism machine dictate how I use language, grammar or punctuation.
Arbella Rodriguez Marquez has been in ICE custody at Eloy Detention Center for five months. Her best friend says she’s lost 55 pounds, and advocates say she could die without medical treatment for leukemia.
Her best friend told me Yari does not know why she was detained, saying she does not have a criminal record. Yari was denied parole last week and is applying for asylum after her U.S. residency was stripped.
Arbella Rodriguez Marquez has leukemia and has been detained by ICE for five months. A legal U.S. resident, Yari was detained at the border after visiting Mexico. Her friends are calling for her release so she can receive medical treatment. www.abc15.com/she-is-not-d...
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs held a ceremonial signing of the state budget this morning.
#VegasBorn defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is done. He was a huge part of the Golden Knights’ Cup win, and it’s so sad to see his career end like this. I’m amazed Petro played as well as he did this season — a bilateral femur reconstruction is no joke.
One of comics’ most controversial figures — but also one of the industry’s most influential
I actually don’t love this. I know it makes me the weird naysayer, but I don’t like that term, not with what I’ve seen from him in the playoffs
The House is passing the $17.6 billion Senate budget package. House Republican leaders negotiated with Senate leaders and the governor’s office on an agreement. The Senate will need to approve the changes, and they return tomorrow morning
AZ BUDGET WATCH: House lawmakers are back on the floor to work on amendments to bills. They are expected to get to the bills in the Senate budget deal that chamber negotiated with Gov. Katie Hobbs (budget No. 2. Budgets No. 1 and No. 3 were vetoed yesterday)
They sent over the two different House budgets, and Gov. Hobbs swiftly vetoed both of them. Now we wait for the House’s next move.
JUST IN: Gov. Katie Hobbs has vetoed the two different House budget proposals, calling them “partisan, sham budgets.” The House is recessed, and now we wait to see what they do. The Senate budget deal is still out there — it hasn’t yet been read in the House.
This means two of the three budget proposals have passed the Legislature. Budget No. 2, the $17.6 billion package the Senate negotiated with Gov. Katie Hobbs, still needs a House vote. The House minority leader said yesterday he had been told it would get a vote today.
The Senate has also just passed Budget No. 3, the $17 billion bare-bones “continuation budget” passed by the House last night.
Today in the AZ budget: The Senate just passed Budget No. 1 — the budget plan the House developed on its own and passed June 13.
The main appropriations bill (aka the “feed bill”) in the House’s proposed “continuation budget” has enough votes to pass: 31. It will move on to the Senate, which plans to vote on the package tomorrow
The latest on the Arizona’s budget chaos: House lawmakers are voting on a bare-bones “continuation budget.” This is the third budget to be voted on by one of the Legislature’s two chambers
The chair of the House Appropriations Committee says he doesn’t see another budget plan he will vote for.
We’re on budget No. 3 at the Arizona Capitol. The House’s “continuation budget” is the second budget package the chamber has considered.
That continuation budget will be heard tomorrow morning in the House Appropriations Committee. Gov. Katie Hobbs has said she will veto it. Again, lawmakers have one week to pass a budget.
I’m back at the Arizona Capitol, where there’s still a stalemate on the budget. To recap: The Senate passed a budget early Friday morning. A new state budget is needed by July 1. The House speaker says the deal can’t pass the House and is working on a continuation budget.
Text-based social media sites need sports to thrive. It can’t just be doomscrolling. I luckily haven’t gotten too much of this when posting about hockey or baseball, but I’ve seen it in the replies on other posts. Would love to talk sports outside of Discord, though
I’ve been a Sonics fan my whole life, and words can’t express how much I hate the Thunder and how upset I’ll be if they win. I’ll never be over losing the Sonics
And the infighting continues: bsky.app/profile/lita...
An update to my update: The Arizona House speaker says in a statement that the chamber is working on “a continuation budget” to keep the state government going past June 30. Speaker Steve Montenegro said in the statement that the Senate-passed budget doesn’t have enough support to pass the House.
Schools already have a shortfall. This budget has money to cover that, so they can get their full funding for June. School starts for some AZ districts next month. And we already know that the state’s disability services can’t pay providers or group homes if DDD is out of money.
This political infighting can seem like inside baseball that only matters to folks like me who were at the Capitol at 2 a.m. But no state budget will affect schools and other state services like the Division of Developmental Disabilities.
This move to adjourn is unprecedented — I can’t think of a time one chamber has voted to sine die without a budget being fully passed. Republicans in the House and Senate have strongly disagreed on the budget all session. They feuded over funding to cover a shortfall for AZ’s disability services.
The House also has yet to vote on some Senate bills that, if passed by House lawmakers, would need to get final approval in the Senate because they were amended in the House.
And there are consequences even if the House approves the Senate budget as-is: The Senate hasn’t confirmed all of the governor’s appointees. They can only serve without confirmation for one year. So any of them who hit that mark before the Legislature comes back next year will need to leave.
If the House modifies the Senate budget, the Senate will have to withdraw its motion to adjourn in order to approve the changes. Otherwise, there’s no budget — and a government shutdown looms on July 1.
The House passed its own budget a week ago. But the Senate stuck with its negotiated budget with the governor, who promised to veto the House plan. I called that a game of “budget chicken” last week, but now it’s REALLY a matter of who blinks first.
Here are the stakes: Arizona’s new fiscal year starts July 1. Without a budget, the state government shuts down. Essential services, like DPS, will continue to work. It’s unclear what the House will do. The Freedom Caucus and others are unhappy with the Senate budget deal.
First, the Senate does have to come back. They can’t sine die (adjourn for the session) without the permission of the House (and vice versa), according to the Arizona Constitution. And they can’t adjourn until a budget is passed, and it’s only half passed.
An update on what happened at 2 a.m. (not a typo) in the Arizona Senate: As expected, they passed their 16-bill budget plan. Unexpected: They voted to adjourn the legislative session — even though the House is recessed until Monday and hasn’t voted on this budget plan. A 🧵 on why this matters:
The media table on the AZ Senate floor has piles of bill amendments. This photo doesn’t do justice to how many there are
It’s been a very long day in the AZ Senate. They started a little after 9 a.m. It’s now just after 11 p.m., and they’re hearing nine amendments to the main appropriations bill (aka the feed bill). In other words, it’s also going to be a very long night
The Arizona Senate passed the Chase Field bill a little while ago. It now needs a final approval from the House.
Senators are considering seven different amendments. Four have failed so far. The Diamondbacks, the city of Phoenix and Maricopa County have been in talks with lawmakers and the governor on the bill. That deal is in the last amendment up for debate.
The Chase Field bill is up for discussion in the Arizona Senate. The legislation would divert tax money for repairs and upgrades at the downtown Phoenix ballpark where the D-Backs play.
That amendment to the higher ed budget bill failed. It was not part of the deal Senate Republican leaders negotiated with Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. Arizona voters passed Prop. 308 in 2022 to give all students who graduated from AZ high schools in-state tuition, regardless of immigration status
The Arizona Senate is very slowly moving through its budget package. A number of amendments adding provisions from the House budget (a plan the governor called “a nonstarter”) are being debated, including a proposed ban on in-state tuition for undocumented students
Here’s my story, which I’ll update as changes come to the bill package. I also break down an unusual split between Republicans in the Senate and House, which has resulted in competing budget proposals. www.abc15.com/news/state/y...
It’s budget season at the Arizona Legislature. The Senate dropped their budget proposal last night, and the bills are moving through Appropriations this morning. Sen. John Kavanagh just reminded members the budget is still work in progress, with asks from both Republicans & Democrats still to come
A judge has signed off on a settlement allowing universities to directly pay student-athletes. Gov. Katie Hobbs last month signed into law Senate Bill 1615 allowing Arizona universities to do so www.espn.com/college-spor...
This season is cursed
It does suck that "AI" now means both generative AI (boo hiss) and a whole basket of incredibly useful machine learning techniques.
I’m honestly afraid to ask what else can wrong this season
This season. If it can go wrong, it does. The videos look bad
We got three outs in the first without giving up any runs (or hits!), so we already look amazing compared to last night
I’m back for more disappointment, probably
You know, if it wasn’t for the horrific 10-run first inning, the Diamondbacks would be in a really good place rn. But that inning happened, so here the D-Backs are, chasing even with seven runs in the back. Why this team has to make everything as hard as possible, idk
Things are looking up! The Nats may have 11 runs, but we now have two! (Look, we gotta celebrate what we can)
I’m counting on you, Indy. There’s no team I hate more in sports than OKC — not the Oilers, not the Cowboys, not the Dodgers, not Red Bull Racing, not Tottenham, not the Astros.
At least the D-Backs got the third out before they could all score again. Because I was wondering there for a few minutes
Finally three outs. This may be the worst baseball game I’ve ever been to
D-Backs third out challenge: Impossible
The good news: We finally have two outs! The bad: Now it’s 10 runs.
It’s absolutely brutal. We’re already on our second pitcher. Whole ballpark erupted at the first out
It’s the first inning, the Nats have scored eight (!), the D-Backs have no outs, and we’re on our second pitcher. This is going to be a long-ass game.